The Lilac House A Novel [Paperback]

Meera is happily submerged in the role of corporate wife and cookbook writer. Then, one day, her husband fails to come home. Overnight, Meera, disoriented and emotionally fragile, becomes responsible not just for her two children, but also her mother, grandmother and the running of Lilac House, their rambling old family home in Bangalore.

A few streets away, Professor J.A. Krishnamurthy or Jak, cyclone studies expert, has recently returned from Florida, to care for his nineteen-year-old daughter, the victim of a tragic accident. What happened on her holiday in a small beachside village? The police will not help, Smriti's friends have vanished, and a wall of silence and fear surrounds the incident. But Jak cannot rest until he gets to the truth.

Meera and of Jak's paths intertwine as they uncover the truth about the secrets of their pasts and the promise of the future.The Lilac Houseis a sweeping story of redemption, forgiveness and second chances.

1. Amidst the changeability in Meera's life, her family home, Lilac House, remains a constant, a place Meera has forbidden panic (23). Yet the Lilac House is also cause of much strife in her marriage to Giri. How would you describe Meera's relationship to her family home in the beginning of the novel? Does this relationship change by the end? How so?

2. Why do you think Anita Nair chose to interweave Greek mythological figures throughoutThe Lilac House? In what ways did these figures contribute to your reading experience?
3. How do Prof. Jak's articles about the different stages of a cyclone illuminate the structure of the novel? How about the plot?

4. When Jak is a child and his father flees the family, Jak's mother says, I am cursed ??? that's what I am. Neither a wife nor a widow. Who am I, Kitcha? (17). In what ways does Meera's journey explore this question? What does it mean for her to be a woman who is neither a wife nor a widow?

5. As Jak seeks answers tlsS